20/10/2005 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament delegation for relations with Mashrek countries (in the Middle East) chaired by Beatrice Patrie (PES, France) and the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, is organising an action day on 26 October on the fringes of the European Parliament in Strasbourg on freedom of speech in the Middle East. The action day will back the initiative of a committee in Lebanon to commemorate Lebanese journalist Samir Kassir, assassinated in Beirut on 2 June 2005. The committee wants two annual prizes of 10,000 euros to be granted to journalists suffering from repression (or assassinated). One prize would be awarded to a professional journalist and the other to a young researcher or student, under the age of 26, from a Mediterranean country. The action day will start with the lodging of a petition at the European Parliament.